Rainfall on Treasure Coast still way short of normal; fire officials warn of lightning igniting brush fires

Nature's forest fire igniter was at work again this week — after almost a month's absence.

Six small brush fires started Tuesday, all sparked by lightning from storms that moved through in the late afternoon, fire officials said.

One was in the western area of Palm City in Martin County, four were in and around Port St. Lucie and one was in Fort Pierce.

All were quickly contained, although Martin County firefighters had to contend with thick brush in getting to the Palm City fire.

"We still have to be vigilant," said Catherine Chaney, spokeswoman for the St. Lucie County Fire District.

Heavy rains at the beginning in July, along with rainfall since then, has halted what Chaney said was a crisis: almost daily outbreaks of hard-to-extinguish brush fires in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties in the midst of a lingering months-long drought.

Still, annual rainfall, since January, is about half of normal at National Weather Service monitoring stations in Vero Beach and Fort Pierce. Current figures aren't available for Stuart.

Vero Beach has had 16.89 inches this year, which is 11.89 inches short of normal.

Fort Pierce's 14.05 inches is 13.69 inches below normal.

July is part of what is normally the rainy season. Rainfall has picked up, but it is still short of normal. The month's rainfall is 5.24 inches in Vero Beach, versus a normal 6.53 inches. Fort Pierce has had 3 inches; normal is 5.79 inches. Normally, Stuart gets 6.33 inches in July.

The weather services' rainfall gauges are in coastal areas that have been drier than interior parts of the Treasure Coast. Rainfall has been heavier west of Interstate 95 such as in Indian River County.

"It has been saturated out there," said Brian Burkeen, spokesman for Indian River County Fire Rescue.

Currently the state's drought index is low along the Treasure Coast. It ranks from 300 to 399 on a scale of 0 to 800, with 800 being desert-like.